


Married Life

by skylinesunflowers



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Canon Divergence, College, F/M, Fix-It, Future, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25296718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skylinesunflowers/pseuds/skylinesunflowers
Summary: How Eric and Donna’s life might have looked if Red hadn’t had a heart attack.
Relationships: Eric Forman/Donna Pinciotti
Kudos: 8





	Married Life

They got married on a Sunday, in a courthouse with nobody but them and a stuffy official with a nametag that read ‘Dirk’.

Donna wore a floral sundress, and wove her curled hair into a loose braid. Her face matched the color of her hair, bright red with joy. She could barely meet Eric’s gaze without bursting into laughter.

They held hands across some lady named Mary’s table, green eyes fixed on blue as they mumbled the traditional vows. He signed the wedding license when they were finished, and handed it off to Eric, who promptly gave it to Donna.

They left the courthouse, hand-in-hand, laughing at the man’s century-old haircut and ruffle sleeves. He looked like a colonial teacher, ready to smack the hands of his students with pieces of wood.

Donna began piling her essay together when they got back to their dingy apartment, a little ways off campus, where Kelso, Hyde, and Fez lived. Their walls were covered in pictures. Laurie sent one from Canada two weeks ago, arms wrapped around her latest ‘boyfriend’. Donna insisted on hanging it up, beside the wedding photos of both Kitty and Red, as well as Bob and Midge.

There was another one, a long one taken during the last few days of high school. Hyde, Jackie, Fez, Rhonda, Kelso, and the pair of them. Jackie and Hyde were going long-distance, and Rhonda was here with them, married to Fez before his student visa expired.

“Rhonda wants to know if we’ll go out with her and Fez on Sunday,” Donna said, gathering her papers into a folder and piling it on top of her books.

“Tell her maybe. We won’t, but it’s best to let them hope, right?”

Eric was seated at the table, furiously scribbling at a piece of paper. He was going to be a high school English teacher, and what a good one he would make. This was the job for him, Donna was sure of it.

“I’ll see you after class,” she said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. He still had a cheap haircut, still out of necessity, though he’d admitted that he was used to it by now.

They were quietly married, and a platinum ring joined the diamond one on Donna’s ring finger. It wasn’t conventional, but it was her. Better than the necklace disaster, anyways.

She felt at home in her jeans and a plain t-shirt she’d found in the wash. It was always nice to dress up, if not for her, than for Eric, but it was nice to dress down, too.

That was, well, the point. The fact that she was more content here than at home, with her father wandering around naked, and her mother a heavy presence upon the house. Eric loved her, and he treated her well. That was all there is to say on the matter.

He waved goodbye to her from the table, smiling in an endearing way, and she couldn’t help but turn back before leaving. This was where she belonged. Studying to be a reporter, surrounded by Eric, and all her friends.

Not in Point Place, but, rather, away from it.

***

Violet Katherine Marie was born in April, a month after her father’s birthday. She was named for the flowers Donna grew outside their house, the ones she tended to so carefully. Eric was iffy on the two middle names, until Donna had mentioned that it was a trend. She had been devouring ice cream by the gallon, at that point, and he’d thought it wise not to argue.

Red didn’t speak to him, but he called Kitty from the payphone outside the hospital. She had been in tears from the beginning, and practically dissolved upon learning that their child carried her name.

Bob had more of the same reaction, remembering the day his own daughter had been born, and signed off the call in a choked voice. Donna cried after that call, for a good ten minutes while Eric rocked the baby.

Later, they named Hyde and Jackie the godparents. Jackie joined them last year, coming to work in the same field as Donna, but, instead, as an anchor.

Needless to say, the two were overjoyed, and insisted on lording it over Kelso, Fez, and Rhonda. Donna privately admitted that Rhonda was their first choice, but Fez … not so much.

Violet had big, blue eyes like her father, and brown hair like him, too. Eric joked that it proved he’d done all the work, but, when all was said and done, he told Donna that her demeanor seemed more like hers. 

Apparently, all men went soft when they had kids. Not a year later, Jackie gave birth to a son, Steven Jack, after her father. Stevie.

The fun they made of Steven wasn’t a patch on what he’d said to Eric, but it was still rewarding.

***

Two years later, they moved out of Madison and built a home in Chicago. The public schools were very accepting of Eric, and Donna found a decent job at a local newspaper. They weren’t alone, not after Kelso moved when he’d knocked a librarian up, or after Jackie came to work for a popular news outlet.

Woody Albert Rob and Danica Anne were both named by Donna in the subsequent years. He had red hair like his mother’s, and eyes like Eric’s, and Danica had the exact opposite. What a picket fence family they were, two girls and a boy, living in the suburbs.

Eric was still at work, and he’d promised Donna to pick the kids up from student council, basketball, and yearbook. He insisted she spend some time with Midge, who’d come to visit from California.

She was tanned, looking entirely out of place with their white patio set, sitting amongst a garden of violets, roses, and daffodils. “Donna, sweetie, are you happy?”

“I’m happy, Mom,” she replied, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Are you?”

“Am I what?” she asked, characateristically.

The look on her face said it all. Midge was happy. Bob was happy with Joanne, who he’d called to strike things back up with. Red and Kitty were as happy as they could be. Her friends were happy, each as married as they could be.

She was happy, in her little suburbia with Eric. A good job, three kids, and a husband. Apparently, a girl from Point Place could truly have the dream life.


End file.
